Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Fesh from weekend victories in primaries around the nation, Barack Obama is beginning to make slight shifts in his campaign in order to address the more important strategy of dealing with the threat of Senator John McCain. Obama has begun to zero in on what he terms are Hillary Clinton’s inability to “break out of the politics of the last 15 years.” In particular, he pounded away at failed policies in Latin America. Obama argued it is not sufficient to continue expressing the mantra of “I oppose Castro or I oppose Chavez.” He pledged to visit Latin America and directly challenge Chavez policies and to work with people of the region in developing new programs.

Hillary Clinton understands as well as any insightful political leader our policies towards Cuba make no sense, but her ongoing fear to cause controversy block action on her part to urge new policies in Latin America. Barack Obama is willing to take the risk of alienating some Cuban voters in Florida in order to create new Latin American directions. He is willing to blast President Kibaki’s vote fraud in Kenya which Senator Clinton will not address.

A 21st century world requires new thinking. Barack Obama understands the winds of change are sweeping Africa and Latin America and is wlling to meet with leaders in those areas of the world to explore new directions. He is willing to meet with Iranian leaders rather than play it cool and conservative knowing full well such audacity risks angering some voters in America. Senator Clinton is intelligent but she fails to realize this century requires bold new thinking. Senator Barack Obama has demonstrated over the past few days his ability to gain support from all sectors of the United States.

Hopefully today’s votes in primaries will provide additioinal evidence that Obama’s bold new vision is one the American people support. The times they are a’changing and a new leader will move this nation into a world in which diversity of thinking is embraced.

An unknown number of Army employees disributed chaine-mail that make false accusations about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. the e-mails originated at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. The e-mail accuses Obama of being a secret radical Muslim, that he disrespects the Ameican flag, and that he was sworn into public office while holding his hand on the Koran. The e-mail is being distributed under the subject line: “Who is Barack Obama?” The e-mail thread obtained by the Army Times shows the message began to circulate outside the government and reached an AMEDD employee before going out to a wide distribution list in that department.

Let’s hope this type of fraudulent information is stopped dead in its tracks and those responsible are fired from their positions. That is the best way to handle such un-American behavior.

Senator Hillary Clinton admitted on Face the Nation that her husband’s hard-hitting campaign tactics had gone overboard but chalked up his erratic behavior to love and lack of a good night’s sleep. “You know, my husband has such a great commitment to me and to my campaign, he loves me just like, you know, husbands and wives get out there and work on each other’s behalf.” She admitted tensions of the tight race for the candidacy of the Dmocratic party had resulted in “maybe he got a little carried away.” She blamed “sleep deprivation” for his comments concerning Barack Obama and defended Bill Clinton’s role in working for the rights of African Americans.

Barack Obama’s victory speech in South Carolina, responded to the attacks of Bill Clinton by noting relics of the past are “fighting back with everything its got, with the same old tactics that divide and distract us from solving the problems people face.” Bill Clinton simply has lost contact with the world of 2008. Democrats today want someone with a vision for America that unites rather than separates people. They are no more interested in the skin color of a person anymore than who people sleep around with in the privacy of their homes.

Barack Obama obtained two-thirds of the vote in the South Carolina primary with Hillary Clinton coming in second with 27% and John Edwards gaining about 18%. Many observers believe the extent of the Barama vicory may partially be attribued to the slime capaign conducted by the two Clintons. There are reports Senator Ted Kennedy has asked Bill Clinton to tone down the invective against Barack Obama which increasingly comes across as mean spirited and hardly what one should expect from a former president of the United States.

Hopefully, Senator Clinton has learned from South Carolina the nation is tired of divisivenes, tired of attacking opponents on personal grounds, and tired of a candidate who shifts frrom issues to personalities. If she continues this undignified performance Clinton runs the risk of aiding her Republican rival more than she can damage the Obama candidacy.

Obamania is sweeping through New Hampshire like a winter wind bringing winds of change to the northeast. Latest polls indicate he now holds anywhere from 39% of the vote up to the forties while Clinton has dropped to about 29%. A fatigued Hillary Clinton vowed not to drop out of the race even if tomorrow’s news is a crushing defeat for her campaign. “It’s not easy. It’s not easy,” she told her supporters. “I just don’t want to see us fall backward.” The Iowa defeat and the coming defeat in New Hampshire has made Clinton adopts the Giuliani strategy of focusing on the large states.

Barack Obama has connected with the people of America while Senator Clinton appears trapped in the past of experience. The question confronting both candidates and political analysts is whether success in Iowa and New Hampshire will translate into victories all over the country. Is Obamania a quick spring rain that will vanish or is it the beginning of a powerful storm that will rage across America. In a sense, the future does not belong to Hillary Clinton, she is known for who she is and what she has accomplished. The future belongs to Barack Obama if he can convinced the American public there is substance behind the rhetoric of a charismatic voice.

Tomorrow is an important date in the life of Senator Hillary Clinton. Just about every poll indicates she will lose to Barack Obama by about anywhere from 3% to 12% of the vote. Future political analysts will use the Hillary Clinton campaign as a case study in what not to do. She cast herself in the armor of “experience’ in a time when Americans were disgusted by their nation’s leadership. The last thing voters want is someone who has experience in failing. Hillary Clinton surrounded herself with “experts” ranging from her husband to those earning thousands of dollars advising her to play it safe and never reveal the person underneath the cold exterior of smugness. The experts sold a “package” rather than allowing a human to just be herself and show America that she not only had intelligence, but human compassion.

The post New Hampshire campaign will be much more important to Hillary Clinton. Will she engage in shrill attacks on Barack Obama? Will she go for the jugular and attempt to be tough? America is turning to Barack Obama because it seeks new ideas, new energy, and someone who will unite a nation divided by red and blue states. All signs point to the inability of Hillary Clinton to offer such a vision to America. Perhaps, the best thing she can do after tomorrow is to announce her support for Barack Obama and unite behind a candidate who will represent not merely the Democratic Party, but the nation.

David Olive, writing in the Toronto Star, asks the question as to whether or not Hillary Clinton simply has too much baggage to ever secure the nomination or win the election for president. Two months ago in Paris, he spoke with a group of American tourists, including a few women who wanted a female president, but when Hillary’s name came up, they all rejected her as a choice. Ironically, notes Olive, despite having a more liberal voting record than Clinton, it is Obama who is viewed as the centrist candidate. “But, the same baggage that afflicted Al Gore in 2000 has sapped Clinton’s candidacy of excitement and momentum.”

Olive raises the point that despite being a woman, despite being very intelligent and well informed, Hillary Clinton blends into the background of the other white male experienced men running for either the Democratic or Republican nomination. On the other hand, despite Obama’s youth and relative lack of experience, he comes across as an agent of change, and a candidate who will end the divisiveness of the past two decades. The American people hunger for leadership that moves away from “them” and “us” towards one which seeks to unify a nation. Olive believes Americans sense there is something wrong not merely with their society, but with those leading it, and that is the spark plug which is the dynamo placing Obama to his victory.

Hillary Clinton still leads in national polls, she is among the best qualified and informed candidates in this year’s primary marathon, she had ideas, but, does she possess soul is the question. People respect rather than love her. People nod their heads in agreement as she goes through another one of her keen analyses of problems, but they do not feel warmth to her in their hearts. They do not sense her candidacy heralds a new beginning, instead, it reflects more of the same old anger and fury that has marked American politics since 1992.

In 1960, Richard Nixon was the candidate of experience, and lost to the young and charismatic Kennedy, in 1980, Jimmy Carter had experience and lost to the cliche spouting warmth of Ronald Reagan. In 1992, George Bush far exceeded in government experience the younger Bill Clinton, but it was the gregarious candidate who gained victory. The times they are a’changing and this year will witness the emergence of Barack Obama and the politics of hope and change as the winning combination for the presidency of the United States of American.

Retired Air Force veteran, Andrew Hampton, grew emotional when he rose in an Iowa meeting to ask Senator Barack Obama about his plans to make certain veterans obtained health benefits they needed. Hampton was wearing an Obama T-shirt and the senator asked him to pose a tough question. The crowd laughed but then grew quiet as the military veteran spoke. He said he joined the Air Force in 1956 and retired in 1988 and initially did not receive the health benefits he had been promised due to a “political decision.” Eventually he received a pace-maker. The concern he expressed to the senator was ensuring that those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan receive full medical benefits. “We can’t desert them,” he cried. Obama promised if elected president that he would do all in his power to ensure every veteran obtained needed medical benefits as long as such assistance was necessary.

It has taken a Democratic Congress to finally force the Bush administration to carry out the nation’s obligations to those who have served in the armed forces.

Senator Hillary Clinton encountered Senator Barack Obama at a Washington D.C. airport and extended her apology for the uncalled for comments by an assistant in her campaign who implied the Illinois senator might have ben engaged in drug dealings earlier in life. Bill Shaheen, a Clinton campaign co-chairman, has said that since much of Senator Obama’s background was murky it might lead Republicans in a fall campaign to imply that he had a wayward youth that probably included drug dealings. “There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks,. It’s hard to overcome,” he told The Washington Post. Mr. Shaheen apologized for his remarks and then resigned his position.

I really don’t know why Mr. Shaheen resigned, everyone knows that African Americans spend their youth dealing drugs just like Jewish children are youthful bankers, and Irish kids like Shaheen can’t stop guzzling down beer and whiskey in their wayward childhood. The tragedy of his comment is that he actually thought people would believe such nonsense about Obama. Of course, Senator Obama has written his life story– unlike Hillary Clinton– so, if there is anything murky in the past of politicians it most likely will come from an examination of Clinton’s background, not Obama’s youth. This silly incident merely highlights failure on the part of Hillary Clinton to offer the American people bold ideas and a vision for the future. Instead, she is focusing on trivia and, in so doing, opens the door for her campaign associates to sink into the pit of slime and innuendo in order to counter the increasingly bold campaign of Obama.

P.S. Will Mr. Shaheen now reveal the secrets yet uncovered about the childhood of Oprah Winflrey?